Heym SR30 straight pull

[sestoppelman]

Interesting.......

 

[HWL]

Like Shootist43 says. Here tou have to license every firearm. It a pain!! And takes about 3 months for approval. Africa time....

If your license isn’t approved you can appeal the decision. It’s never happened to me though. As long as you motivate the reason for wanting the firearm properly you will get your license.

Cheers

Thanks to Shootist43 & Roan for the information....

Is the number and the kind of the firearms limited?

All the firearms are registrated, isn't it?


HWL

 

[Roan]

Thanks to Shootist43 & Roan for the information....

Is the number and the kind of the firearms limited?

All the firearms are registrated, isn't it?

HWL

If you are a dedicated hunter/sports shooter you can technically have as many firearms as you want. This includes semi autos. You must just be able to justify it to the police.

If you dont do the dedicated courses you may have 4 firearms.

 

[austrianhunter]

Have one in .30-06 with an Aimpoint H2 on it and 22“ Barrel! Works great.

I use brass bullets in it - the pass trough everything.

 

[Roan]

Rifle was finally approved!!

Which bases and rings are you guys using?

Cant seem to find bases over here...

 

[V.Veritas]

https://www.talleymanufacturing.com/product/steel-base-for-heym-sr21-sr30/

 

[Roan]

https://www.talleymanufacturing.com/product/steel-base-for-heym-sr21-sr30/

Thanks!!
I also found that site. Problem is there aren’t any of those Talleys here in SA.

So I am hoping someone has used Remington or Leupold that they can give me the model. Shop were I bought the rifle is clueless.

 

[rookhawk]

Just adding to this 2 year old thread with my own review of the Heym SR-30 rifle.

It in many ways is vastly superior to it’s logical competitors like the Blazer R8 and in other ways, It is inferior. As is the case with all the straight pull rifle designs of today, you must remember they are built with peculiar features that are related to adherence to the firearms laws and practices of Central Europe. Some of these features will offend the sensibilities of American and African hunters that never wanted a particular feature that was built to satisfy a German bureaucrat and an odd use case we would never consider important.

You may feel I’m attacking the R8 Blaser in my review but I am not, I’m praising it by ignoring what I believe are inferior straight pull designs (Krieghoff Semprio, Browning, Merkel Helix, etc.). By comparing the SR30 to the credible and well known Blaser R8 I feel my review gives a reasonable point of reference against a known design and certainly a gun one might be contemplating buying in lieu of a Heym SR30 or vise versa.

The good list:

Fit and finish to my eye are superior to the blaser R8 in many respects. I must confess two clarifications here. 1.) That I’ve seen pictures of older R8s with side plates, exhibition wood, and very high level fit and finish. I’ve never handled one of those, only the 98% of R8s that are not in that “best gun” camp. 2.) The SR30, not unlike the R8, started entering the American and African market with “best guns” and then both have faded down into the economy models. My SR30 is a high grade gun but the newest models on the Heym website might be edging close to the “eurotrash” epithet just as some of the entry level tactical R8s of recent production might get the same insults.

The locking system for the action I believe is the very best ever designed for a straight pull rifle. It’s ingenious as it is simple. 6 ball bearings are the locking lugs in the hollow bolt. Pushing the bolt forward thrusts a plunger forward, forcing the 6 ball bearing lugs into the action walls for positive lockup that cannot sheer off. This design is superior in my opinion to the Blaser “petals” design first used on the R93 And now the R8.

The safety is ingenious and quite incredible. The bolt has three positions, back, middle and forward. Pulling back recesses the lugs and lets you pull the bolt back. When pushed forward to the middle position, the gun is able to be kept in either safe or fire, but the firing pin is inert. Pushing the bolt all the way forward allows the weapon to fire. This setup allows you to safely transport the gun on safe with a round in the chamber and it allows you to have the gun off safe in a blind or on a stalk with minimal effort (push the bolt slightly forward) to silently be ready to shoot.

The wood and dimensions are more pleasant to the eye and more “normal” in appearance than the R8. Whether the Euro style boar back stock style or the Holland & Holland dimensioned Anglo stock, the SR30 geometry is better in feel and aesthetics for the traditional shooter than the blaser.

The SR30 has a single set trigger option that is very nice for high accuracy long range shooting.

The SR30 has an integrated rear mount milled into the receiver so quickly installing a reflex sight is easy, detaching that and adding a EAW pivot mount for a great return to zero with an optic is also quite easy. This in my opinion is better than the Blaser R8 system, however the newer, cheaper SR30s have gone to pictatinny rails that I find to be ugly and unrefined compared to the higher grade examples. Therefore, the SR30 is generally better than the R8 in this regard but both can be equipped with poor scope mounts in their entry level configurations.

The adornments on the SR30 are superior in options than the R8. While similar options for nicer bolt knobs and magazines exist in both, the overall SR30 options at their price point provide better furniture similar to what you can get on heym double rifles whereas a lot of the blaser adornments of similar quality are on very rare custom orders, most of which were made very early in the launch of the weapon.

The sight arrangements and options are slightly better than the R8, but both are good. Both have lightweight and fluted options.

The bad list:

The R8 and the SR30 have a tie for last place in that they both require external magazines in their default configuration. It’s a European thing and its terrifying to think a mag falling out could ruin a safari. Because the R8 does have special order options for internal magazines, I give the nod to the R8 if you actually go through the trouble to get the internal magazine option.

The barrel switch option is superior on the R8. With the R8, you swap the barrel and potentially the bolt face in order to have many caliber choices. The SR30 also is a switch out gun, but the SR30 has you spending 1/2 the gun’s value for a new barreled action that swaps in with you keeping the magazine, stock, trigger, and bolt as common amongst two setups. I do not like the idea of swapping out either system in the bush so I give the nod to the SR30 as the better aesthetic as a single caliber weapon than the R8, but in fairness the R8 beats it dead on multi caliber swap outs if that is something important to the owner.

This could be bad, good, or neutral depending on your requirements as pertains to calibers. The blaser has magnum calibers available so points to the R8. On the other hand, the R8 isn’t really one gun, it’s about 5 guns required to use all the various calibers. The SR30 is actually two gun models, a large and a small. The large action is what I own and it allows use of 300WM, 7mm Rem, 8x68s, a magnum 6.5 I cannot recall, and the 375 Ruger. The smaller action allows all the usual calibers and the 9.3x62. Take note, the SR30 is a simpler offering with fewer calibers (good) but it also is devoid of 375HH and 458 (bad) in its catalog. They both have the stupid external magazines that give the unfortunate low round capacity. The SR30 has an ugly option of 5 round extended magazines, not sure if the blaser also has this ugly option. I hate both equally Regarding magazines.

Overall

If you want a high quality straight pull gun in a single caliber that isn’t a large bore, the SR30 is a better gun than the R8. If you want large bore options, easy swapping of many calibers, the R8 is the champ. If aesthetics is important to you and you weren’t an early purchaser of the R8 when exhibition wood and beautiful hand engraved side plates were the norm, an SR30 is a more refined rifle at the sub-$10,000 price point. At the over $10,000 price point, the SR30 can vastly exceed the beauty and refinement of the R8 as a single-caliber rifle, but again it is at the expense of versaitilty.

If I had $20,000 to spend I would buy two SR30s of top quality rather than 1-2 blazers of top quality. But the fact you cannot get a largebore SR30 is a true dealbreaker for a lot of African hunters which is a pity because the action was tested at 100,000psi and could surely handle any cartridge for dangerous game if they had bothered to make a longer action throw and a stock with an internal magazine!

 

[Petrovič]

Thanks Rookhawk for excellent reading you provided! I saw here in Slovakia an ad for SR30 cal. 338WM, advertized as in excellent condition, with installed pivot mount piece (smal square at front). Gun looks beautiful and asks EUR 1650. I think is very reasonable. What is your caliber please, and how much weight you have without the scope? Thanks.

 

[rookhawk]

Thanks Rookhawk for excellent reading you provided! I saw here in Slovakia an ad for SR30 cal. 338WM, advertized as in excellent condition, with installed pivot mount piece (smal square at front). Gun looks beautiful and asks EUR 1650. I think is very reasonable. What is your caliber please, and how much weight you have without the scope? Thanks.

Mine is a 300WM and I cannot recall the weight with scope, but probably around 9lbs I’m guessing.

They made these in many different configurations that can alter weight and value. I have no way of knowing if EUR 1650 is a good/bad deal but I can tell you there are some that cost 1650 and others that cost 32000 EUR.

 

[Petrovič]

Thank you! I understand. It is probably a basic model, but looks very nice.